Walk between 7,000 and 12,000 steps daily. Walking several times a week reduces the risk of dementia.

Buy yourself a pedometer to remind yourself to walk and to keep track of your daily steps.

Dance as this is a behavior that reduces the risk of dementia.

Garden and Knitting reduce the risk of dementia.

Aerobic exercise will help the heart and thereby feed the brain with the necessary blood and oxygen. It also promotes cognitive functioning such as memory and is now believed to relate to positive structural changes in the brain.

Eat 80% of what you intend to eat at each meal. Reasonable caloric restriction can increase your longevity.

Eat with utensils and you will eat less and also eat healthier foods.

Increase your intake of Omega 3 fatty acids. This includes fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, and herring. Several ounces of salmon weekly reduce the risk of dementia. Walnuts and unsalted nuts are also good for you.

Increase your intake of antioxidants. This includes Vitamins C and E. Colored fruits (grapes, apples, cantaloupe, and berries) and vegetables are good for you. The FDA recommends five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

Decrease your intake of processed foods and red meats. Lean meat such as chicken breast without skin is relatively okay.

Green leafy vegetables are good for you.

Eat one sit down meal with others a day. This activity provides many brain boosting effects at once (classic music, language, eating with utensils, slowing down, eating healthier foods).

Hello, I am Dr. Paul Nussbaum, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Fit Brains, and I am happy to introduce myself to the Ft Brains’ community. My background is in clinical neuropsychology, and I specialize in brain health and aging across the lifespan. Currently, I maintain an Adjunct Associate Professorship in Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

This is my first posting, and I will be bogging weekly. In the days to come, I plan on covering many subjects in the area of brain health and fitness. This will include insight into our new Fit Brains brain games, tools and features. Today’s blog will be the first part in this series.

Your Brain Health

The single greatest system ever designed in the history of the universe is your brain. Your brain is responsible for your every thought, emotion, and behavior. Unfortunately we humans do not know much about our brains and it is time to change that.

Brain Basics:

1. Your brain weighs 2 to 4 pounds.

2. Your brain is comprised of 60% fat and is the fattiest system in your body.

3. Your brain consumes 25% of the blood from every heartbeat.

4. Your brain has two sides or hemispheres (left hemisphere and right hemisphere).

6. Your hippocampus is the structure in your brain (sits in the middle of each temporal lobe just under each temple on your skull) that enables you to learn.

New Ideas about Your Brain:

The human brain (like the animal brain) can generate new brain cells. This new brain cell development (neurogenesis) occurs in the hippocampus.

The human brain is now thought to have “neural plasticity” or be a system that is highly dynamic, constantly reorganizing, and malleable. It is shaped by environmental input.

Our brains need exposure to environments that are enriched, complex and novel. Environments that are passive and rote do not help the health of your brain.

Exposure to enriched environments across your lifespan will lead to new brain cell development and increased cellular connections (“Synaptic Density”). Synaptic Density or Brain Reserve may help to delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and related dementias.